Australia's chief scientist is worried the proposed deregulation of university fees will further cut agricultural science enrolments.

Professor Ian Chubb believes that flies in the face of current free trade agreements, which will demand an increasing level of food production from Australia.

He says that with rainfall patterns changing and farming regions shifting, Australia desperately needs the skills of agricultural scientists.

"The cost of an agricultural science degree to a student would go up something like 37 per cent.

"We need them, so why would you charge them more to do a degree that's so critically important to our international relations, to our own capacity to produce food for ourselves, and to export it as well?"